People in the News:

IF HIS KIDS WANT POT, DEPP WILL SUPPLY IT

If "Pirates of the Caribbean" star Johnny Depp's kids want to smoke pot
when they're older, they can count on dad to get it.

Not that he wants them to. He doesn't. But as somebody with plenty of drugs
in his past, he thinks that if his kids are going to try pot, they might as
well try it at home, where the stuff has been quality tested and isn't
laced with other drugs, such as PCP.

"Out on the street, you never know what you're getting," Depp told GQ.
"Suddenly two days later you're beating yourself in the head with a tennis
racquet, quoting (Edgar Allan) Poe. You don't want that for your kid."

Depp calls pal River Phoenix's fatal drug overdose, which he witnessed, "a
nightmare you never recover from" and says his new family helped him
jettison his former "dumb-ass, self-centered (bleep) persona."

Depp now plans to make Paris his permanent home because the United States
"mortifies" him with its "childish freedom fries and freedom toast."

* Striking French film workers who shut down a film shoot starring Jack
Nicholson got sympathy from an unexpected quarter: the star. Told that
artists' rights were threatened, the actor voiced his support.

"The struggle continues!" he said in broken French, wearing his trademark
dark sunglasses.

- -- P-I staff